


Tea and Cutlery

by Only_by_Night



Series: Two To Tango [2]
Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: F/F, Really No Plot, and a cameo from Babs!, just sexual tension and tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-23 11:44:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3766843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Only_by_Night/pseuds/Only_by_Night
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Patsy has a quiet nightshift at Nonnatus and Delia comes round to keep her company. They get a little distracted during their tea break. PWP, you know the drill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DeliverMePatsy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeliverMePatsy/gifts).



> Working through the list of anonymous prompts submitted to Tumblr user DeliverMePatsy. This one was: The time the place was empty and things got way too heated in the kitchen.
> 
> This one's taking me ages to write for some reason, so I'm splitting it into two chapters-hope you don't mind! Took a couple of historical liberties with publication dates too- let's just assume a copy made its way across the Atlantic in eight years...

It had already been an eventful evening for Patsy Mount. After delivering twins at tea time, cycling back to grab three bites of dinner and then quickly heading out again to a difficult labour that ended with her accompanying a new mother and her baby to The London in an ambulance, she was ready to sit down and have a cup of tea. Walking all the way across Poplar in the dark to retrieve her bicycle would have been a tiring inconvenience, but for the fact that she’d bumped into Delia at the hospital and the cheery Welsh nurse had promised to drop by after her shift and keep Patsy company on the night watch. The prospect of sitting together, talking openly for a while, made short work of the long march through the rapidly cooling evening. The heatwave had finally broken and the unseasonal chill made her wish she’d brought her cardigan along.

Letting herself back into a darkened Nonnatus, Patsy stuck her head into the hallway to ask Barbara if she wanted a cup of tea and found the young midwife nodding off in the telephone chair. Taking pity on her friend Patsy sent her off to bed, promising to wake her if a call came in.

She put the kettle on and dashed up to the bedroom she shared with Trixie to retrieve her cardigan. The room was empty, Trixie was spending the night at the Mother and Baby home along with Nurse Crane. In fact the whole of Nonnatus was hushed, almost resounding with the night time quiet.

Patsy made her tea and settled in by the phone with the copy of _The Price of Salt_ she’d seen in a secondhand bookshop and bought in a sudden rush of spontaneity, sandwiched between _The Mayor of Casterbridge_ and _Dr. Zhivago_ , desperately trying to look causal as the indifferent cashier rang them up. She’d left it in her trunk in its inconspicuous paper bag for weeks, but had only begun to read it, during rare moments to herself, in the last few days since Delia had made a passing reference to it. She hadn't told her girlfriend she had the book; she hadn't known if she'd have the nerve to actually open the thing, but she wanted them to be able to discuss it, or allude to it between them, another code that could show she was making an effort. The phone didn’t ring and the redhead was soon engrossed in the novel, wistfully staring off every few pages to imagine just _deciding_ to live a life together and just going out and _doing it_ , just like that. Coming home and putting the dinner on (not that she knew how to cook much) and hearing Delia’s key in the door…

Her reverie was interrupted by distant knocking. She slowly drew focus back to the present, then checked her watch as she rose to her feet, stiff after sitting for so long in the chilly space. It was nearing midnight. She opened the door cautiously, expecting Delia, but experienced enough not to assume that there wasn’t trouble or some manner of baby-related emergency on her doorstep. The fact that the visitor declined to use the bell suggested they didn’t want to waken the whole household at any rate.

“Hello, Pats.”

It was Delia, of course. Always good to her word, even though she’d obviously been kept at work much later than she was expecting. Patsy looked fondly at the petite brunette who stood casually on the top step, resting her weight on one leg and grinning in the streetlight. Delia was still in her nurse’s uniform, but she’d taken her hair down on the journey over and almost unconsciously Patsy reached for a lock and wound it gently through her fingers. The brunette patiently allowed this for a few moments before piping up again, “Can’t I come in, Pats? It’s a bit nippy to keep a girl standing on the doorstep.”

Patsy remembered herself, almost sheepishly, and stepped hurriedly back to allow her girlfriend into the dark hallway. “Sorry, Deels,” she apologised, “Do come through, I’ll put on some tea. Looks like a quiet night,” she continued as they made their way back through the house, “I’ve packed Babs off to bed, she was ready to drop.” Delia followed her through to the kitchen, just glad to hear that familiar cut glass voice talking softly. She’d listen to Patsy talk about pretty much anything, types of string, shades of beige, all the varieties of sheep, she just wanted to hear her close by, was grateful that the beautiful, reserved woman wanted to share any of her thoughts with her. Watching her walking ahead brought its own benefits too, but mostly Delia just wanted to be around her, sharing space.

She perched on the counter while Patsy filled the kettle and found the teapot, enjoying the easy domesticity of watching her measuring out tea leaves and fetching a bottle of milk. She cheerfully told the story of why she was so late in coming over that evening. It was a pretty funny account, and hearing Patsy laugh gave her a warm feeling all the way through. The redhead could be so serious sometimes, she’d looked mournful too many times lately.

Since last week’s intense encounter in Patsy and Trixie’s shared room they had barely seen each other at all- conflicting schedules and other engagements. But both nurses had given their exchange a lot of thought in the meantime and despite Patsy’s fear of discovery, her desire to be proper, despite Delia’s reservations about her prowess when they actually got to spell out all those unarticulated wants, they were both coming to realise that just resisting wasn’t going to be a long term plan for them.

Tea poured and delaying tactics all expended, Patsy waited for a moment to see if Delia would get down and come to fetch her drink, but the brunette simply swung her legs and kept talking, waving one hand around to illustrate her hilarious description of the little boy who'd come in with a saucepan stuck on his head, his right foot wedged in a bucket and his left foot clean through an orange crate. It was hardly what the NHS was meant for, bailing the public out of their own stupidity, but it was a very funny story nonetheless.

There was little mistaking the mischievous Welshwoman's intentions, her unspoken insistence on having her tea brought to her was an entirely transparent plot, but listening to her laugh in that bubbling way as she looked up through her lashes weakened even Patsy Mount's renowned resolve. She brought the cup over with her sternest 'behave yourself' face. "I'm sure I'm not the one who needs to be told." Delia replied aloud, surprising the redhead. "What? I can read you like a book, Pats. You're warning me to behave. Which is a bit rich..."

Patsy blushed at the memory and looked at her shoes, a little embarrassed now they seemed to be talking about it but, despite herself, excited again as she thought of Delia's darkened eyes and breathless urgency, of the sensation of-

Delia interrupted her squirming (torn between alarmed disbelief that she'd been so brazen and gratified astonishment that her beautiful, patient girlfriend had so readily complied) by reaching out and gently taking the teacup from Patsy's hand, seeing it trembling slightly. She set the drink carefully down on the counter at arm's length then took the redhead's pale hands between her own, warming chilled fingertips and gently running her thumbs over the neatly clipped nails.

"It's alright love." She spoke gently, reassuring. "We can enjoy each other, we're not doing any harm. It's not our fault we're not allowed to be proper about it."

Patsy met her eyes at that, unspoken anguish in the crease of her brow. Delia kissed her fingertips and kept talking, "You know I'd marry you if I could, Pats, but for now this is the best we can do. And for what it's worth? I couldn't be happier about last week. I never wanted to push you, but I have _really **wanted**_..."

She paused here, dipping her head a little and letting her face fill in the blanks. Patsy's eyebrows nearly met her hairline as they looked right into each other's eyes for long seconds, the brunette's grip tightening around the midwife's hands and the redhead's heart starting to thump so hard she was convinced Delia would feel it.

She wasn't sure if she'd unconsciously stepped forward, or if her girlfriend had subtly drawn her closer, but Patsy found herself stood between Delia's knees, their hands still locked between them and it seemed unthinkable not to kiss her then. The smaller woman released her grip to wrap her arms around Patsy's neck and stretched up to meet her kiss. For her part the midwife planted her hands on the counter, pinning Delia's hips, and sighed against her mouth, resigning herself to addiction; this just felt like coming home, there was no resisting, only postponing.

She layered gentle kisses on Delia's lips, intending to show her some affection and then retreat to the telephone, where she was actually supposed to be. When she began, gently, to detach herself however, her companion had other ideas. She hooked her legs around the back of Patsy's knees to keep her locked in their embrace and merely beamed in response to her girlfriend's warning look. Patsy laughed at that and relented, leaning back in for a deeper kiss that quickly became two and then somehow her tongue was introduced to the equation, and then of course Delia's tongue to balance the equation, that was basic algebra. The lip biting was less academic, but the diminutive nurse seemed to enjoy it nonetheless, if that moan/whimper sound meant what Patsy was pretty sure it meant (Modern Languages.)

"Deels. Delia. We need to stop." They were breathless by this point, pressed as close together as they could get in that position- and nurses were generally good at inter-body physics.

Planting one more lingering kiss on the flawless porcelain skin of Patsy's neck, just below her jawline, the brunette rescinded her power of custody and, to the redhead's secret disappointment, let her loose, turning instead to pick up her forgotten cup of tea. She took a sip and wrinkled her nose "Cold." Then she laughed. " I would have thought we were generating enough heat to keep a cup of tea warm!"

Patsy gave her a mock shocked expression and started back towards the hallway.

"I'll be there now," Delia called after her, "I'm going to brew another pot."

Twenty minutes of smiling at the desk and inwardly congratulating herself on winning over such a fine young woman later, the besotted midwife finally realised that the object of her affections was not, in fact, anywhere to be seen. She waited a minute more, listening intently, but the House was slumbering peacefully and nothing broke the surface of the silence. A little concerned now she rose again and made her way back to the kitchen.

"Delia? Where did you-?" She stopped short. The brunette had moved to sit on the edge of the kitchen table, top three buttons undone and despite the chill she was eating an ice lolly. It was a tad incongruous maybe, but a very arresting sight. Patsy hesitated a couple of steps through the doorway, quite unaware that she'd caught her lower lip between her teeth and was looking rather striking herself in the low light. Delia looked up at her with her best 'innocent' expression.

"Turned out I was too hot for tea."

The redhead cleared her throat before she could reply, voice suddenly husky. "It's never too hot for tea Deels."

She closed the distance between them, propriety evaporating, and kissed the brunette passionately, tasting strawberry and vanilla.

"Shall I leave you to to your ice cream?" She murmured against her girlfriend's lips. In response Delia let it fall, not even caring where, and laid back on the wooden tabletop, pulling the taller woman down on top of her. Patsy followed willingly, one hand planted by Delia's ear and the other already making its way up her thigh. The smaller woman took the opportunity to grasp the midwife's behind and squeeze encouragingly.

Even in her ardour Patsy had time to be amused by how keen Delia was to get her hands on her posterior.

Patsy was taking her time, lavishing her tongue over her girlfriend's earlobe and nipping at her pulse point but the build up had already been too long for Delia. Hot breath in the redhead's ear and urgent hands pulling her as close as she could; she was well past reserve.

"Fuck me, Pats." The words aloud, albeit in a desperate whisper, were shocking to them both and sent a jolt of arousal right to the midwife's core. Her hand was still stroking the brunette's inner thigh and she didn't immediately react, replaying the words in her head and feeling quivering excitement ripple through her with each syllable. Delia released her grasp on Patsy to reach between them and guide the taller woman's hand further up, into heat and throbbing need.

Patsy drew firm but unhurried circles with her fingertips, teasing, barely dipping them inside and suppressing her own eagerness in order to draw this reaction out, thrilling at the way Delia squirmed and thrust her hips, desperate for more contact.

"Your hands are cold."

That wasn't quite what the redhead expected to hear and she apologised, surprised.

"No," Delia breathed, "I like it." She tipped her head back and tightened her grip on Patsy's wrist, insisting on more, and right then. When Patsy finally obeyed and eased her fingers into her girlfriend's pulsing heat they both gasped at the sensation. She felt a sympathetic rush of excitement when she felt just how wet her Welshwoman was and had to focus on maintaining the rhythm of her thrusting fingers while she felt a deep pink flush spread across her cheeks and chest.

She looked down at Delia's face, eyes closed with an expression of pure pleasure and couldn't believe in that moment that this could really be wrong.

Delia opened her eyes and looked up at Patsy, breathing thick and heavy, but didn't speak. Patsy kissed her and moved her hand faster, crooking her fingers to try and find the spot that would dissolve her girlfriend into a hot puddle of bliss. She knew she'd found it when the brunette's mouth and eyes opened wide with surprise and she brought her hand up to the redhead's chin, pressing two of her fingertips against Patsy's lips until Patsy nipped at them. Delia trailed her digits across the taller woman's teeth, willing her to take them into her mouth and intensify the sensation of being inside each other.

The redhead was growing quite desperate to be touched herself and her frantic ministrations rapidly brought the Welshwoman towards the brink until, unable to wait any more, she finally released her grip on Patsy's wrist, other hand still between the redhead's eager lips, and began to rub lightly at her own clit. She was barely putting any pressure on herself, but in her intense arousal that was more than enough to send her shuddering over the edge, gripping at Patsy's wrist again, this time to keep it still and clamping her freed hand over her mouth to keep herself from crying out.

They stayed locked together, panting while the brunette recovered herself. When she’d caught her breath Patsy tenderly withdrew her hand and moved round to sit beside her girlfriend, letting the smaller woman rest her head in her lap. Delia appreciated the gesture, but she could feel the unspent tension keeping the redhead’s muscles taut and, more than anything, Delia Busby believed in fairness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More filth, what can I say? Still no plot to speak of, but there is a smidgeon of character, if you squint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just apologies this took so very long. I think this will rest as a two-shot unless there's specific demand for more on this.

All they could hear was the occasional drip of the tap across the room and their breathing- Delia's still a shallow pant, Patsy's ragged, dragging down oxygen for the blood busily thundering round her body, igniting nerve endings all over.

The realisation of exactly what had just happened, quite what it was they were doing, not to mention where, was dancing just on the edge of their buzzing senses, but the power of the human mind to resist what it doesn't want to know is nothing short of herculean.

With her mouth open Patsy unintentionally released Delia's fingers and the brunette affectionately trailed the damp tips around the contours of her girlfriend's face; cheekbones and full lips and jawline, all flushed with arousal, before letting her hand drop, still trembling, onto her own chest.

For once the garrulous Welshwoman was speechless, so she showed her appreciation by turning her head and kissing the arm leaning on the wooden tabletop beside her. She could barely see the light dusting of freckles on Patsy's skin in the dim kitchen, but thinking of them made her smile anyway.

"What are you smiling at?" The redhead asked gently, not wanting to shatter the stillness but needing to speak. When Delia told her she laughed aloud. The sound shook her out of the moment of suspension and awareness of her keening desire came sweeping back over her, knocking the air from her lungs.

Delia caught her lip between her teeth as she watched the midwife's eyes grow dark with renewed desire. Patsy caught the smaller woman by the backs of her knees and dragged her closer, till she was perched on the edge of the table, and began to thrust their hips together, seeking out friction.

Delia whimpered as Patsy dug her fingertips into the smooth skin- there would be tiny blue fingerprints just above her hemline tomorrow and she was secretly pleased. They might not talk about this afterwards, but there would be evidence, for a couple of days at least.

She sat up to kiss her fiercely, trying to encourage the redhead to grip her tighter. In a desperate bid to get them even closer she pinned in Patsy's calves with her feet and draped her arms across her girlfriend's shoulders, tracing senseless patterns across the nape of her neck to make her shiver.

"I have an idea," she breathed into Patsy's ear, taking the opportunity to graze her earlobe with lips and then teeth. Patsy just hummed in response, distracted by a sudden need to nip at the nurse's collarbone. "Do you trust me?" Patsy stopped at that and pulled back far enough to look into Delia’s glittering eyes without breaking contact. She regarded the smaller woman for several long seconds, before apprehensively nodding.

Delia held both of Patsy's hands gently as she slid down off the table and turned them round so the redhead was now perched on the table edge. Still holding her icy blue gaze, Delia slid her hands up the midwife's thighs and caught the hem of her underwear. Patsy's breath caught in her throat, but she obediently shuffled enough to let the brunette slide them down her legs. Delia kneeled down to ease them all the way off, then looked up at Patsy from the cool kitchen tiles. Patsy was suddenly very aware of every resounding beat of her heart as Delia took hold of her calves and watched her expectantly until the young woman nodded her assent.

Moving slowly, but assuredly, Delia edged closer and ran her hands up the redhead's thighs again, feeling her trembling as she did so.

"It's okay Pats, I've got you." The words were irrelevant really, but her tone, part of that famous bedside manner, reassured them both. Delia started to kiss along creamy skin with the muscles beneath tight from cycling miles every day, while Patsy scrabbled to take in enough air above her.

The brunette paused for a moment as she reached the summit of her girlfriend's legs, reverent in the utterly unexpected intimacy that had sprung out of a playful whim.

Patsy flinched slightly in anticipation as she felt Delia's hot breath, and in the next moment she was involuntarily murmuring to herself, unable to supress astonishment at this new sensation that was so much more immersive than she could have imagined. Though if she was truly honest with herself, she most definitely had imagined, and far more frequently since that afternoon in the bedroom. She wanted to tell Delia how much she'd hoped for this, and all the times she'd berated herself for wanting it, but all she could say was "...Oh." And then " _Oh._ " She twined her fingers in the back of Delia's hair with one hand, clinging onto the table edge so tightly with the other that her knuckles were white.

Delia had been making long slow strokes with the flat of her tongue and, encouraged by the response, ventured the tip of her tongue between hot, slick walls. Patsy tightened her fingers in Delia's hair and the brunette buried her face deeper, lapping with shallow flicks of her tongue and building the intensity until she could feel Patsy's calves tensing, then she'd ease off and lightly circle the taller woman's throbbing clit till she was pleading wordlessly, head tipped back.

Delia ran her fingernails up and down the redhead's thighs in time with her strokes, sending tingles back along electrified nerves, and all the sensations gathered in a white hot bubble in the midwife's core.

Opening her eyes in the dim room, Patsy could see white encroaching on the corners of her vision and she finally found her voice, though she struggled to keep it steady, and pleaded in a desperate whimper for her girlfriend to _Please_ and _oh please, Delia_ and then all at once the heat and the melting sensation were cascading through her and all her bones turned to liquid.

When she coalesced again, long seconds later, Delia was on her feet, holding her up as she came to her senses.

"Remember to breathe, love," the nurse was telling her, even as her hands went roaming again, unable to resist Nurse Mount's curves when the redhead was feeling so expansive. In return Patsy dipped her head down to the smaller woman's neck and laid a line of gentle but sloppy kisses along her jawline, too loose and dazed to be neat about it, revelling in leaving a wet trail from below the brunette's ear right down to her collarbone. She gripped the back of Delia's neck with both hands to pin her in place, but her girlfriend had no intention of going anywhere, using the opportunity to grasp generous handfuls of all those parts she had to pretend not to admire when they were out in public.

Patsy was just lowering Delia back down onto the kitchen table for round two when she realised the phone was ringing in the hall. She was almost (almost!) tempted to ignore it, but the next instant the Welshwoman noticed too and was pushing her away towards the door.

Reluctantly, but with her characteristic practicality already clearing the post-coital haze, Patsy shrugged her midwife's demeanor back on and strode out to answer the call. Left to recover for a few seconds, Delia celebrated a very successful evening On Call by adding an another elicit exhibit to her Patsy Mount Underwear Collection. That done she filled the kettle and set about making them both some tea.


End file.
